


The Land Over the Sea, Below the Sky, and Around the Sun

by ravinilla



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst, Fantasy, Friendship, M/M, Multi, Mystery, Original Characters - Freeform, Other-worldly Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-03-31
Updated: 2012-07-31
Packaged: 2017-11-02 19:53:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/372758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravinilla/pseuds/ravinilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are four things that make up "Regno Cuore" or Kingdom Hearts. Sora is kept clueless, something is up with Kairi, Riku continues to be dead, and Taiyō is disobeying the rules. Sora has no idea what he's in for when he returns home . . .</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. House Away from Home

**Author's Note:**

> This would be my first story on AO3, and I'm super excited to see how everything goes. Kingdom Hearts is my current obsession, so it seemed only fitting that my first story would fall under this fandom category. Enjoy ~ ♥

The window was opened all the way, and through it came a gentle breeze, swaying the creamy and slightly translucent silk curtains that hung from above in its soft wake. Midday, the sun was high in the sky, pouring it's rays all over the island, being the only source of light in the room. It was quiet . . . nice.

Times like these, he liked to think, but today, at this moment, he couldn't seem to muster a single thought. Rather, he didn't want to. This peacefulness was calming to his mind, therefore keeping it completely clear, and that was something he could appreciate. He didn't really like thinking all of the time, it only brought bad things for him, only brought pain he wished he could be rid of. Face down in pillow, he was pretty much inhaling the same breath he exhaled, which he knew wasn't good for him and he'd probably suffocate himself, but he would turn over in a moment. It really was nice to rest like this after the week, especially when that week had been so long.Then again, the weeks had always been long, ever since he had arrived on the islands; they were probably just getting longer and longer the more time he stayed here.

Normally, a sixteen-year-old boy would be more than happy living on his own - especially when everything was paid for. Honestly, a teenager couldn't ask for more besides that; however, he wasn't like that. Sure it was nice and all, but he was missing the one thing he craved most - company. Moreover, his family. Well, just his two brothers, he should say, they were the only family he had ever known.

Roxas and Ventus were their names, Ventus being the older of the two, but being near-to-perfectly identical to Roxas, who was two years his junior. They lived together back in his hometown of Twilight Town, the lucky guys . . . Not to mention they had each other, which was a total bonus and totally bogus. Sora didn't know how he ended up being the one to be stuck out here in this place, all alone. He missed home . . . Twilight Town . . .

Man, that place was really something. It didn't exactly get its name from thin air; nearly all hours of the week, of the month, the sky was a sherbert-orange, littered with clouds. The full sun was hardly ever seen and it was almost never really dark enough for the stars to make an appearance. It wasn't a highly populated town, and when he asked Roxas [the smartest one] why, Roxas had told him that when it twilight for a long time, a lot of people would get depressed; not many could handle it. But he liked it, he could never understand how anyone could get so depressed with such a beautiful sky . . .

That life was great, the one he lived with his brothers . . . He missed it all of the time.

But . . . Ventus and his friends left to go into training with their new masters, who had taken them on as apprentices. So for a while, it was just him and Roxas and the other kids in town. It wasn't all bad being without Ven, but then . . . He had come back, they all had, but they were different. Something had changed, and it had changed for the worse. In result, he was the one that was shipped away, but it wasn't before he had the horrid chance of losing his best friend.

Destiny Islands wasn't a bad place, really. This place was a paradise if he had ever known one, it was almost never too hot, the sun's beams were gentle rather than harsh during the perfect summer times, the wind always blew gently, and this place hardly ever had storms. It was a well-known place, but it was in a nearly-unknown location, pretty much hidden from the rest of the world; you were a very lucky man or woman if you had ever found this place, that's what the number of tourists was so low.

Destiny Islands was great. Other than him being alone. It wasn't alone in the sense that there were never any people around with him, but rather in a sense that . . . well, he wasn't with his family, explanation enough. He did go to school after all, and it's hard to escape people there. They all liked him, his fellow classmates, he wasn't sure why. Sure, he was nice, laughed a lot, made people comfortable around him, but what qualities were they to people he didn't truly care for? Kids at school . . . didn't know who he was, he figured they weren't even his real friends, just acquaintances who liked being around him.

None of them were like Riku. Riku. That was one of his biggest regrets, leaving Riku behind. In his childhood, Riku was his best friend, his closest friend, and they were almost never without the other. Even if he could have though, he was sure that he never would have tried to bring Riku with him. It would have been . . . sickening, slightly. You see, Riku was dead. And had been for nearly six or seven years now. At around the time he was nine, Riku was kidnapped from his home where he had lived with his older brother Terra, who had been away with Ven. No one knew exactly what happened, but the story went that there had been a ransom put up for Riku's safe return, and since Terra was away and pretty much unknowing of what was happening, the current caretaker of him couldn't pay the price. Riku was dead within the week.

Before Sora [so you finally learn the boy's name] had been shipped here, he used to visit his best friend's grave twice everyday, if not three times. There was something peaceful about talking to a person who was no longer there. But Sora had always felt like Riku was still around. Or perhaps he had just missed him a lot . . .

There weren't many things these days that still kept Sora going, but if it was ever anything, it was the promise Ventus had made him before he was shipped here.

• ~ • ~ • ~ •

_"You can't be serious . . ." Ventus barely managed to say, "Terra, this isn't fair! How would you feel if -"_

_"Ventus," began a woman with blue hair, cutting Ven off, "Don't say things like that. You already know what's happened to Riku . . ."_

_The blonde-haired boy didn't seem to accept that, "Then what about Ignis?" he shouted out, "How come she doesn't have to give up Taiyō? Why . . . why do I have to be the only one?!"_

_A young Sora, barely ten-years-old, stood near the wall, watching the older people argue. He had absolutely no idea what the heck any of them were talking to, but Roxas was holding his hand tightly. There was something about moving away? He didn't know . . ._

_Aqua, the blue-haired woman, was hesitant to speak again, but she did, "I know Ven, I know how unfair this is, but . . . You know what's at stake. You know what happened . . ." she continued, "This is how it has to be."_

_For what was a long moment, it was quiet, and the only sound in the room seemed to be Ven's quicked and probably panicked breathing. He had finally looked up from the floor, averting his blue eyes to his two older friends with his fists clenched in blood-draining balls, "This isn't what Master would want," he said quietly, "He had even said . . . even said that if anything ever happened to him, they were supposed to stay together! That was what . . . he . . ." The blonde teenager trailed off at being handed a small letter by another girl who had walked into the room. He stared at her deep blue eyes for a long moment and she stared just as intensely back at him._

_Little Sora had realized he had never seen this girl with firey red hair and tanned skin, but she seemed to know Ven, Terra, and Aqua . . ._

_After the girl handed the older blonde boy the letter, "It's not a good idea to bring up the near past, Master is dead now and we can do nothing about it." She calmly walked back towards the door and then leaned against its side, crossing her arms and waiting._

_Ven looked at her, and then looked at Aqua and Terra. Gently, Aqua motioned for him to read the letter, a sad and understanding look plastered on her face. Ventus averted his blue eyes down to the small envelope in his hands, turning it around and looking at the small seal that kept its lip closed. He thumbed open the edge and was careful not to rip any of the envelope, removing the seal successfully. From inside he pulled out a thin peice of white paper and unfolded it to read Master's Asian-styled scrawl._

_After a minute or two of reading, little Sora watched as his older brother's face contorted into a pained look. The small brunette frowned heavily, "V-ven . . ." he began, "What's the matter?"_

_The older boy didn't redirect his attention to his little brother, but instead looked up at his two older friends, "So it's finally come to this . . ." he said tiredly, "We finally know what they really are . . ." Sora's eyes moved to Ven's hands which were clutching the sides of the white and delicate paper, easily beginning to tear it up._

_For what seemed like another very long time, it was quiet again. Sora didn't like things when it was quiet, it always felt like something heavy was gonna drop on all of them. The little boy finally spoke up, movning towards his brother and tugging on the hem of his shirt, "Venven, what's gonna happen to us?" Even he could tell that the older boy was trying to avoid looking at him._

_Ven looked at his younger twin and then finally looked at Sora. His hand went to his own face, and that's when Sora had seen it; a look that had been so broken and so desolated, it would haunt him for nights to come, but Ventus covered it up with a smile to the best of his ability. He came down to his younger brother's levels and grabbed their hands, holding on for what could have been dear life, "Sora," he began as calmly as he could, forcing himself not to shake or waver, "you're going to have to go with Miss Aqua, she's going to send you on a vacation for a little while." And then he turned to look at the other one, "Roxas, Sora's going to be away from us for a while, so it's just gonna be you and me."_

_Sora was a little confused, "A . . . vacation?" he asked, "You n' Roxas aren't gonna come with me . . .?"_

_The oldest brother faltered for a moment, took a breath to collect himself, and then smiled, "No, it's a special vacation for you."_

_A frown appeared on the little brunette's face, "But I don't wanna go without you. It wouldn't be no fun . . ."_

_The girl with red hair who appeared to be around Ven's age ushered Aqua and Terra out of the room, "Ven," she began, "we'll be waiting."_

_Sora watched as the three of them left the room. He looked at Roxas next who had nudged him and then motioned to their older brother whose face was directed towards the floor; Sora's big blue eyes went wide, "N-no, Venven . . . wh-why are you crying . . .?" He put his hands to Ven's face to get the older boy too look up, and then he tried to wipe all of the tears that wouldn't stop coming, "Venven, please don't cry . . ."_

_"I - I promise, Sora . . . I promise that one day, you'll come home with us, we'll all be together again. I promise . . ." Ven barely managed to get out._

_"Does this mean I won't be able to see Riku no more?" Sora asked him thoughtfully, putting a finger to his chin._

_"It's not like you can take him with you, is it?" Ven asked him, trying to laugh a little with a bit of success._

_Hearing his brother finally do something happy, Sora smiled, but then it went quiet again and his thoughts jumbled a little. He looked back at Ven, "How long will I be gone?"_

_At this, Ventus bit his lip and a few more tears spilled, "I don't know . . . how long you're going to be there," he finally answered, "But for now, this is how it has to be."_

_The weight of what was happening finally hit Sora; he was leaving his family, the only one he had ever known, leaving all of his friends . . . "But I don't wanna leave y-you or Roxas or R-riku . . ."_

_Ven felt his heart pound painfully in his chest, "I know . . . But Sora, one day, I promise - you'll come home to us." he said. "Now," he started again with a sniff of his slightly runny nose, "You have to go with Miss Aqua, she'll take you where you need to go. And you better behave," he added at the end, "otherwise, I'll get you." the teenager finished with a smile._

_Little Sora nodded obidiently, "'Kay. I'll see you after vacation?"_

_"After your vacation." Ven repeated, and then pulled both of his brothers in for a tight hug. Sora felt warm and secure in his older brother's arms, never wanting to let go, never wanting to leave . . . The hug did last for a long time, but it was finally the moment to let go, and Ventus almost didn't. He forced himself to pull back and nudged Sora away, "Now go."_

_"Okay!" Sora nodded, and the door opened just moments later, Sora looking over his shoulder and waving, "I'll see you later guys!" he called to them with a goofy but bright grin._

_The two boys made no reply back, but waved smally as their brother as the door began to shut. Roxas was exactly emotional as his brother was, but he wasn't naive like Sora was - he knew what was happening, but couldn't be very sad because he knew his little brother would come back one day._

_With a click of the door, Sora was gone and Ventus collapsed to his knees, his head falling into his hands, and his whole body started to be wracked with sobs. Roxas only looked at his older twin at first, his crying taking the younger's mind by storm - then it hit him too, and he threw his arms around Ven and the two brother began to cry together._

• ~ • ~ • ~ •

Sora rolled over on his bed, finally no longer being able to breathe the same breath that was going into his pillow. The sun reflected off of the milky ceiling and he sighed. He was so gullible when he was a kid - he should have never left with Aqua, and to this day, he had never forgave himself for being so gullible. He'd originally thought that the vacation would only last a few weeks, maybe a month or so, but that clearly wasn't the case when he went to go and speak with one of the counselmen of the islands.

They had told him that he wasn't permitted to return to Twilight Town under the orders of one Terra, Aqua, and Ignis. And so that was the day he was no longer ten-year-old Sora from Twilight Town - he was Sora, the boy who was shipped away from his home. Still, the only thing that kept him going these days, as mentioned before, was that one day, he and his brothers would be reunited in his hometown. Every day, that was what he waited for.

There was a knock at the door.


	2. The Letter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally. I finished it a few days ago, but with the excitement of Dream Drop Distance, it was just a little forgotten.

Sora raised his head to look at the door, and then looked at the clock; it was already three o'clock – last time he checked it, it was only noon. Strange, how time likes to completely fly free when you're thinking. 

A second knock hit the door, and the teenager pushed himself up from the bed with a sigh, “I'm coming” he called out, and then made his way out of his room and across the beach bungalow to the door. Straightening up slightly, he peered out the peep hole to his door and then saw a man in a deliverer's outfit. Mail, for him? Cautiously, he opened the door.

“Good afternoon, sir,” the man said, “Would you please sign this?” and he handed Sora and electric clipboard and a stylus to sign his name on it. At this point, the boy was still a little befuddled by getting mail, and slowly processed that he should sign it.

When he did, he looked at the man, giving him back his clipboard, and in exchange, the man handed him a box, “This arrived for you earlier this morning,” he explained as Sora took it, “Have a nice day, sir.” Still in a bit of a confusion, the boy watched as the delivery man turned on his heel and returned to what ever brought him here.

Sora looked down at the box to check the return address, but there wasn't one on there. He gazed out the door, _No, that's not completely suspicious at all,_ he thought to himself. He swore, if it was a bomb, someone was going to hear about it. The box was of a moderately small size, nothing too special about it, it wasn't too heavy at all – _Bomb's don't need to be heavy –_ he just wondered who would send something to him, he didn't even know if anyone at all knew that he was here. Well, except for Ven and Roxas, of course, so those two are the only people who could have sent him something.

He was almost tempted to leave the box outside his door because if it had memories of home, he didn't want to be reminded, if that were the case, then whoever sent this to him only wanted to mock his pain. The other part of him was, of course, curious, and his normally adventurous spirit won out this one, and so he took the box to his dining room table and set it down. Taking a seat, he stared at it.

About an hour passed.

 _Okay Sora, what are you waiting for, an invitation?_ He thought to himself, raising up from the table. But really, the reason he hadn't touched it, or hadn't even moved at all for that matter, was because he was scared, scared of what would be in that box, what kinds of thoughts the contents would provoke in his mind. Maybe those were silly things to be scared of, but for the time he had been living on Destiny Islands, alone, his mind had evolved, adapted to this set of thought. A sort of defense mechanism, if you will – he didn't want to see, smell, look at  _anything_ that reminded him of the things he was missing.

He walked to the kitchen in a bit of a daze and grabbed a glass and filled it up with orange juice. He was feeling a little weak, to be honest, and so a little sugar in his system wouldn't hurt much.

After drinking about half of the tall glass, he took the rest of it back to the table and sat himself once more, preparing to stare at the box for another hour.  _Not this time, Sora,_ he thought, reaching for the package. Slowly, he undid the tape closing the top and the sides, peeling it with an excruciating slowness – he was making himself completely impatient, but forcing himself to learn how to wait.

As soon as the tape was all off and he was able to open the box, he put off that task to take the time to roll the unhinged tape into a nice little ball. He was stalling; he was still scared. When he was done with that menial task, he returned his apprehensive attention to the box and its flaps that were slightly open, beckoning him to open and take a look inside. Slowly, he moved the two flaps and bent over to look inside – an envelope, a small box, and a bottle of rocks.

 _A bottle of rocks?_ he thought curiously, and that was the first thing he pulled out, disregarding his fears completely. The bottle looked a bit refurbished, cleaned for the better part, until Sora found the label.  _“The Amazing Rock Collection: Adventure Rocks!”_ Now why did he recognize those words . . . ? The label seemed to be written by a kid and – holy crap. This was  _his_ bottle, and not just his – this was the bottle that he and Riku used to carry around when they went outside as kids! Where on earth did this come from?!

No, only a few other people knew about this bottle, and he swore that Roxas' jerk friend Axel hid the bottle forever during a game of lost-and-found, where the kids would take each other's stuff and hide it. Sora had said the bottle was completely off-limits, but Axel was a rebel, didn't like obeying the rules and so the bottle was gone the night of the game, never to been seen again, or so Sora thought.

Zooming back to reality, he realized just how precious the bottle in his hand was. He didn't have many physical memories of his childhood, since they were all left behind in Twilight Town, but this was more than just about his childhood, this was about Riku – his best friend. He didn't know if that was a good or bad thing, to be reminded of that boy, whose heart, they said (Sora had overheard), was dissolved, whose mind was destroyed, whose body simply . . . _disappeared._ They said how he “really” died was in a fire, and so the body was damaged so badly, they would let no one see it.

 _Headache . . ._ Sora thought to himself, placing the bottle on the table. He was regretting not leaving this box outside already. Rubbing his temples and taking a deep breath, he looked inside the box once more, only two items left – a stack of something put in a rubber band, and an envelope. It was easily decided that there was possibly a letter in the envelope; from who, Sora didn't know, but he felt like he almost didn't want to know – he would open it last, or maybe not at all.

His tanned hand reached for the stack of something wrapped in the rubber band, and once he thumbed through it rather quickly, he found that it was a collection of pictures. His face contorted into a heavy frown – whoever sent this little . . .  _happy_ package to him really knew how to stick a knife in the gut and twist it. The brunette's mood almost began to border angry, rising onto irritation mixed with nostalgia pain.

Did he want to look at the pictures? They would jog his memory . . . He hadn't forgotten what anyone from home looked like, but sometimes, it was feeling like that. How long had it really been since he'd seen their faces? It felt like forever, as if the years he'd been spending on Destiny Islands dragged on into decades,  _centuries . . ._ He missed all of them, everyone. Pictures were nice . . . He wanted to see their faces again, but their  _real_ faces, not just something that was two-dimensional.

He removed the rubber band from the stack and with a trying-to-calm-himself-down breath, he looked down at the first picture. In relief, he sighed; just scenery in this one. Someone had captured the ever-setting sun from the high balcony-cliff in Station Plaza. It was one of the most beautiful views in all of Twilight Town, and pictures of the sunset were often taken there. The place was also a popular sitting spot, a few benches lined the balcony-cliff's wall, and there were lamp posts at each end of the row of benches. Tourists to the town often liked being there.

Sora gently placed the photo face down and took a look at the second image. Given the refuge from the first image, he pretty much expected to be tortured with the second, and he was right. Looking back at himself were four people, two girls and two boys. Easily, he recognized three of them, but the fourth one, the girl with red hair, might as well have been a stranger to him, for he had only seen her once or twice before he left. The other three he had known since he was a baby, of course . . .

Ventus, Terra, and Aqua.

Before he could form any thoughts on the three people he was looking at, he turned the photo away and began to quickly look through the rest of them. He gained painful glimpses of several faces from the past; Leon, Cloud, Hayner, Yuffie, Tifa, Olette . . . These were all people from his childhood. Before Sora had known it, he had flipped through the whole stack of images, and was to the last one, tears stinging annoyingly at his eyes.

The last image, as he might have expected had he known better, had three small kids in it. One of them had very messy brown hair that would, in the future, stick up in every which direction, and blue eyes that were so radiant, it would practically be a tragedy to see them dim out. Then there was another, a girl, whose hair was short and auburn-red, and her eyes were blue as well; maybe a little darker, but just as deep as the sea. And then there was the third and last child. A boy, whose silver-light hair reflected the setting sun was unique and whose eyes were still and aquamarine.

Sora hadn't really remembered when this image was taken, but . . . it was them, and they were in the Sandlot area, probably after a game of soccer or something. In the background, there were some other faces he recognized, but didn't really care to name. The only names he cared about were the ones of the three kids.

Kairi, Sora, and Riku.

Startled, the brunette quickly left his chair and hopped into the kitchen. The box containing the pictures and the bottle fell over and the letter was now laying on the table, beckoning him to open it. How it fell over, he didn't know, and it was a little hard on his nerves to think about it. He hadn't really intended to open it because he didn't want to know what it said, especially if it would only bring him more pain.

Sighing, a little embarrassed for acting the way he did because of the tipped box, Sora made his way back over to the table. Instead of sitting back down, he picked up the letter. It was kept from opening by a wax seal that had a strange little symbol etched into it; a heart that had its insides curling into almost-spirals. He frowned at it, but carefully thumbed it open, finding a nice piece of letter paper folded up inside. He brought it out and the center section of the fold was where his name was written in a sort of elegant chicken-scratch. He turned the paper, breathed deeply, and then unfolded it.

At the top, it began, “ _Sora,_ ”

“ _Who would be sending you a letter when you're way out here in paradise? If you're wondering this question in your mind, I'll answer it right now: No one of importance. Or better – no one you know. I'm very sorry if you were expecting perhaps one of your brothers or maybe one of their friends. To be honest, it probably would have been better if they were the ones sending it to you and not me. Also, they don't know that I've sent this to you, so once everything happens, you'll be doing me a favor by not telling them any thing about this letter._ ”

Sora's face was in slight confusion, wondering who it was, if not any of his friends or family, that sent him this letter. Unconsciously, as he continued to read, he moved to the couch, sitting on it.

“ _In two days time, at the end of the week, someone will come for you. Now, I'm not sure who it is, but I've gotten wind that it'll be someone you'll be pretty happy to see. It'll be great for you, coming back after all of these years, but there's something very serious happening – but you must act like you don't know about it. Everyone will direct you in a direction of nothing being wrong, that everything is normal, but I will be the one to tell you that it's not._

“ _I, along with yourself and some others, am involved in some very serious happenings. No matter what they tell you, know this: something very serious is happening, and you and the people you love are in a sort of passive danger, at this time. I have no guarantee that it will get any worse, but I'm gonna tell you that it's not getting any better.”_

Reading the letter was slightly unnerving, but Sora couldn't find himself stopping until he was done with it. He hadn't really understood just how out of the loop he was. Five years . . . without communication; what had happened in those five years that he didn't know about? And then there was the person who wrote to him; if it wasn't either of his brothers nor his other friends, then who?

“ _There are some other things too, that you should know about. Personally, I don't want to tell you because if I were found out, I'd be in HEAPS of trouble, but I'm sure that somewhere along the road, you'll discover it._

“ _In any case, you have two days to pack up everything that is important to you, that's when your savior will come and you'll go home. Unfortunately, that won't be the end. There's a lot to do . . . By the way, make sure you explore, it'll come in handy for later weeks._

_My hand is really tired now,_   
_-T.”_

T? Who was that?

Sora looked around his dining/living room. He had lots of stuff. Really, he wasn't even attached to half of it, even less so. If what this 'Taiyō' person wrote in the letter was really true, then he should probably get started on the packing now so that he could make sure he got everything he wanted.

He just really hoped that she didn't lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started on the third chapter some days ago, but I don't know when it'll be finished. Until then, enjoy Dream Drop Distance!

**Author's Note:**

> I know that this chapter was very long - the original version of it wasn't so long, I have no idea what happened, but I believe the chapters get longer as they go. I hope you all enjoyed my story and look forward to the next chapter. c:


End file.
